As soon as the ships had anchored at Punta del Arenal, the admiral sent the boats on shore for water, and to endeavour to procure some information respecting the Indians, but they could do neither, that country being very low and uninhabited, and having no springs or rivulets. He therefore ordered them next day to dig trenches or pits on the island in hope of procuring water by that means; and by good fortune, they found these ready made to their hands and full of excellent water, it being supposed that they had been dug by the fishermen. Having taken what water they wanted, the admiral resolved to proceed to another mouth or channel which appeared towards the north-west, which he afterwards called _Boca del Drago_, or the Dragons Mouth, to distinguish it from the one where he then was, to which he had given the name of _Boca del Sierpe_, or the Serpents Mouth. These two mouths or channels, like the Dardanelles, are made by the two most westerly points of the island of Trinidada, and two other points of the continent, and lie almost north and south of each other. In the midst of the Serpents Mouth, where the admiral now anchored, there was a rock which he called El Gallo, or the cock. Through this channel the water ran continually and furiously to the northwards, as if it had been the mouth of some great river, which was the occasion of naming it _Boca del Sierpe_, because of the terror it put our people into; for, as they lay very securely at anchor, there came a stronger current of the water than usual, making a hideous noise and running furiously to the northwards; and being opposed by another current running out from the Gulf of Paria, they met with a hideous roaring noise, and caused the sea to swell up like a high mountain, or ridge of hills along the channel. Soon afterwards, this mountainous wave came towards the ships, to the great terror of all the men, fearing they should be overset. But it pleased GOD that it passed underneath, or rather lifted up the ships without doing any harm; yet it drew the anchor of one of them and carried it away, but by means of their sails they escaped the danger, not without mortal fear of being lost. That furious current being past, and considering the danger of remaining there, the admiral stood for the Dragons Month, which is between the north-west point of Trinidada and the east point of Paria; but he went not through it at that time, but sailed along the south coast of Paria westwards, thinking it to have been an island, and expecting to find a way out northwards into the Caribbean sea towards Hispaniola; and though there were many ports along that coast of Paria, he would put into none, all that inland sea being a harbour locked in by the continent.